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In follow up to this morning's taste of Steampunk genius, we dug back a few weeks into Steampunk Workshop and came across this headphone mod, and got intrigued. Not so much because of the project itself--though it is a lovely and elegant bit of trickery, in which the guts of a modern pair of headphones are transplanted into the skin of an antique counterpart--but because of the philosophy.
First, the brief intro by the Workshop's first ever "guest contraptor," in which she outlines compellingly what moves her to put so much effort into an ostensibly frivolous pursuit ("I wanted to join them in subverting mass production and wondering aloud, 'Why can't we live in a beautiful, hand crafted, personal world?'"), and then the disclaimer written by the site host, meant to fend off any criticism for "destroying" an antique piece of technology. It's quite wonderful, and worth printing in its entirety:
Editors Note: Just to forestall the "I can't believe you . . ." emails, I'd like to say a couple of quick words about modding vintage stuff.Antiques have value for two main reasons; they give us a connection to the culture that created them and they have monetary value in the marketplace. There is no doubt that singular handcrafted works of artists and craftsmen demand preservation as they give us unique information about past cultures. However, vintage mass-manufactured goods hold little unique cultural information, they have value only in the marketplace.
While modding an antique may destroy it's [sic] monetary value, it also transforms it into an object that now preserves unique cultural information about the present. So it all depends on what you feel is important.
Curious to hear reactions to this from the design community: does the addition of new cultural significance always justify destruction of the old? Or is it a case-by-case kind of thing?
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Comments
The rat rodders of the automotive industry have been doing this for years. Taking any old antique you can find then chopping it up and welding it on the car in a creative and visually pleasing way.
I think an ingredient missing here is the sheer beauty of form and materials that some of these older objects possess. We just aren't molding with bakelite or fabricating with metal and quartersawn oak in the way that was done in the past. Does it get any better to run your iPod off an Edison Cygnet Horn straight out of the headphone jack with no other connection? It looks beautiful and the elegance in simplicity is satisfying and yes, its just dang fun and cool.
My first reaction is purely pedantic. Unless you intend to embarrass a writer you are quoting, there is no need to include their grammatical errors with a [sic]. It is perfectly acceptable to correct the error in the quote without drawing any attention to it.
By updating an antique object, are we not preserving it by renewing its use?
This often happens in architecture (rennovations) and shipbuilding (refits) Why should it not happen with objects?
First of all, I agree with what all the previous people have said. Another thing, is it really "destroying" the object when you modify it? I would think that bringing in a new object is more likely to destroy the old, as there is no longer a (or less) place for it to be used in. As consumers, people often want the newest and purportedly "best" item there is, thus possibly removing the old from the general market. And so, I think there is something to learn from the idea behind the "Steampunk Aesthetic" (as I've seen it called).
ELECTRICITY allowed information to become abstracted from the device that produced it. Before that, information existed in plain sight. Steampunk romanticizes a world in which the mechanical object was a direct manifestation of the actions it produced; the era before electricity. The groove on a 78 record was an indelibly physical mark. Its shape was the shape of the sound. It vibrated a needle that was amplified by a cone. Compare that to the surface of an audio tape or a compact disc, both of whose apperances are completely unaffected by the content they contain. Before electricity, objects looked like the actions they performed. There is no mystery to the inner workings of a bicycle. No instruction is given to the bicycle which it interprets and later carries out. It use is mechanical, instantaneous and sensible.
STEAMPUNK objects are different. They are set-props, simulations, used by their creators to fantasize about technology in some alternate Jules Verne or H.G. Wells universe. But simulation is really the key word in that statement; the experience of using a steampunk 'artifact' contains none of the authenticity of the original mechanical experience. As objects they might look cool, but the experience is only skin deep.
Take a steampunk keyboard, for instance. To give a modern keyboard the appearance of its mechanical precursor (the typewriter) you provide it with a costume. The act of typing on a steampunk keyboard is still an experience mediated by a computer and its monitor. No lever actuates a gear, causing a typebar to swing up and physically smack a ribbon covered in ink. No letter-shaped dent is left behind in the paper. Hitting the keyboard harder or softer produces no difference in the appearance of the characters on the computer screen. There is no clacking of the keys, no typewriter smell of machine oil and ink. Deleting a letter or word destroys all evidence of an abandoned thought. The actual working typewriter, with all its quirks, nuances and failings is the real steampunk, no modifications necessary. You simply cannot manufacture nostalgia.
(Technically, these headphones are not true steampunk, since their fundamental technology is still electricity... )
ANTIQUES: I find the quote about the value of antiques to be especially narrow. An antique is not an object transported through time simply to act as evidence of the state of culture at the time of its creation. They do this, to be certain, but they are far more than that. Antiques have passed through time and by doing so have been changed by it. They have been owned by unique individuals whose interactions leave yet another set of changes beyond those of age. For more on this, see artist Joseph Cornell's boxes.
MASS MARKET objects may be more or less identical at the time of their manufacture, but the minute people interact with them, they become unique. The longer an object is in circulation, the more unique it becomes. They accumulate history and transcend their origin.
In response to Greg, you would have done well to do just a little looking into the actual article. While it does appear on the Steampunk Workshop, the category into which they state the project falls is "Diesel Punk." They beat you to the punch.
As far as the modding of antiques, after seeing the article I picked up a pair of headphones that are in great enough disrepair that noone can ever argue that they are the best example of the object out there. I don't have a problem with updating an item if it brings with it a renewed opportunity for use but if you can do it to one that is less than perfect, pick that one first.